The Age of the New Marauders
by Edvin Elvel
Summary: What would happen if, after the war, the Marauders' Map blanked itself out completely, choosing only to display the words "Mischief Managed"? What if, when Harry's first son, James, attended Hogwarts, he befriended Scorpio? And Dennis Creevy's son? What if, when this happened, the Map became functional again? On temporary Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Prologue:

Harry lay in his bed. The Gryffindor dormitory had been nearly demolished during the war in the past few hours. He sighed. The twins were cut in half. Students had been killed. The marauders had been discontinued. Harry's mouth twisted into a strange mixture of a smile and a grimace. He was imagining Fred in the wizard afterlife, yelling at Harry 'Why didn't you tell me that Prongs was your dad? Or that Moony was our teacher? Or that Padfoot was Sirius? Or even that Wormtail was that absolute git who betrayed Prongs and Lily?' Harry rolled over on the mattress and buried his face in the pillow.

"Harry?" A voice called from the doorway. Harry looked up, a little bit startled. He was relieved to see Ginny.

"Hi. I was thinking of everyone who died." He said, a bit bluntly. Ginny walked over and squeezed his shoulder.

"Have you seen mum? I've been trying to find her. To tell her about Fred." She said, struggling not to burst into tears.

"I'll check," Harry said thickly through his own grief. He reached into the trunk. Suddenly he stopped. "Reckon it'll still work even though all four of the marauders are gone?" He asked her. Ginny shrugged. He reached into the trunk and withdrew a sheet a yellow parchment. The marauders map. When it was unfolded, Harry began to cry in earnest. There, in the middle of the parchment, were two words that would be displayed seemingly for eternity.

'Mischief Managed'


	2. Chapter 2

James Sirius Potter's cheek was smashed flat against the cold window. Ignoring the biting cold on his cheek, he waved to his Dad who was starting to jog alongside the slowly moving train. James noticed, with a twinge of regret, that his father was slowing down and the train was crawling forward more quickly now. His father disappeared with a final, and frankly frantic, wave as the train glided out from underneath the stone arch. Now, the crowd of parents was completely enveloped in inky blackness.

James sighed, swallowed his fear, and turned back around to face the presumably empty compartment. To his surprise, another boy shared the compartment. A little boy with pale blond hair to be exact. James could swear he had seen him before. He shrugged and moved over so he was directly across from the boy.

The boy seemed a little anti-social. James understood that first impressions were everything. He racked his brains in attempt to find a nice, elegant greeting.

"Yo." He finally said. The boy looked up from his shoes.

"Hi." He said. More tension.

"What house are you hoping to get into?" James asked, attempting an icebreaker.

"Slytherin. Well, not really. My dad wants me to get into Slytherin. I'm kind of hoping for Gryffindor." He admitted

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor. Both me and my Dad." James grinned.

"Who is your dad?" The boy asked. James shrugged. He had been told stories about his dad by his grandparents practically as soon as he was born and he had no wish to be identified as 'son of the boy who lived'.

"Do you like the Harry Potter books?" He asked instead. The Harry potter books, while marketed as fiction for muggles, had been written by Hermione Granger a few years ago as a biography to introduce children to his father's story.

The blond boy nodded vigorously.

"I love them. They are actually partially why I'm so excited to come to Hogwarts." He said enthusiastically. "Although it's another controversial topic when it comes to my dad. He is frequently mentioned in them and does not like how he is depicted." He added.

"My dad is in them too!" James boasted. The Boy's eyebrows shot up.

"Who is he?" he asked enthusiastically. James shrugged again.

"Who is _your_ dad?" he asked as a lame excuse.

"I asked first."

"So?"

"So answer me!"

James sighed, resigned. "His name is Harry Potter." The information had the reaction most people would have expected. The blonde boy jumped, wide-eyed.

"That is so cool!" He gushed. "So you must be," He paused and made a quick calculation in his head, "James Sirius Potter! I'll bet you'll have it easy with the professors!" he concluded.

"How did you know?" James asked, confused.

"My father keeps tabs on yours!" The boy laughed. Then suddenly he stopped and frowned. He pivoted in his seat to face the window.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"My father's gonna hate you." The boy said tightly.

"Why?" Asked the black haired boy.

"Has your dad ever mentioned Draco Malfoy?" The blond questioned.

"Yeah."

"Well, that'd be dear old paps." The boy said sourly.

"So you are," James paused, trying to remember what his dad had said about the Malfoys. "Scorpius!" He recalled. Scorpius nodded, his eyes fixed on the window.

"Well that doesn't mean we can't be friends!" James laughed, attempting to lighten the mood. Scorpius's jaw was set. "C'mon, Scorpy." James said, using a nickname he had just made up. Realizing that lightly joking about wasn't going to help, James tried to make newly dubbed "Scorpy", see reason. "Just because your dad and mine don't get along, doesn't mean we can't." James pointed out. "If they liked each other, they would have gotten along. We like each other, so can't we be friends? If we end up enemies, it will turn into a family feud!" Scorpius seemed to be considering the idea. Just to chide him along, James started announcing points. "Welcome to family feud!" He began in a badly imitated excited announcer's voice. "We have the Pushy Potters versus the Mournful Malfoys! Who can win this long lasting battle? Make your Bets no-"

"Okay!" Scorpius agreed, his face coloring slightly. He took his eyes off of the rapidly passing farm houses and turned to face Harry. "But don't tell either of our Dads!" He told James. James saluted cheerfully.

"Aye aye Cap'n!" He joked. Scorpius laughed and turned to his large, brown trunk which, like James, he had put next to him in the seat, seeing as there was no need to move it to the luggage racks. Unsnapping the worn silver lock, Scorpius withdrew a set of shimmering cards which seemed to be glued together into a solid block.

"Wanna play Exploding Snap?" He asked. James hesitated.

"To be honest, I haven't played it since I was five." He admitted. Scorpius looked at him strangely.

"Why?"

"Me and my younger brother, Albus, were playing in front of Mum's old cauldron. We might have blown up the cauldron by mistake." James said, looking sheepish. "Mum banned the game from then on."

Scorpius filled his cheeks with air and blew it out slowly. "So you haven't played since?" He asked, looking terrified at the notion of a world without exploding snap. James nodded. "Do you remember how to play?" Scorpius asked.

James looked at him, exasperated.

"Scorpy, I was FIVE the last time I played it!"

Scorpius nodded. "Err… I guess I'll just reteach you. You know, a quick recap?" James nodded in agreement. "Okay, so you have four piles of cards. One is your graveyard, where you put cards that have lost all of their health points. Then you have your battlefield, where you put cards that have attack points. Here it is possible for one player's cards to fight another's. You also have your hand, which is where your creatures will be stored until you can put them into any one of the piles. Oh, and you have your deck, which is where you draw from each turn to add to your hand. In you hand, you have your coins."

"Coins?" James Interrupted. "I thought these were _cards_."

"Yes," Scorpius said. "Now hush. In your deck, thirty out of the fifty cards are coins. Each card takes a certain amount of coins to summon. Used coins go in the graveyard. You can also trade coins for other cards with the other player. And when once one player's cards are all in the graveyard, the other wins,"

James nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Any other rules?"

"You cannot go more than two turns without summoning a card if you have the materials to do it. We will have a practice game with cards that can't any real harm first so you can brush up on the fine points." Scorpius told him.

James laughed again. "Aye aye Professor Scorpy!" Scorpius smiled and withdrew two sets of cards from his suitcase. James was able to detect a faint bronze shimmer around these two decks. "Which one do you want?" Scorpius asked. James shrugged and grabbed the deck on the right. After trying to pry it apart for a few moments, Scorpius tapped his shoulder.

"Unbinding charm," Scorpius told him.

"Right," James said, a little bit embarrassed. At least Dad had taught him the unbinding charm so as to deal 'the gumball world' on the underside of desks. He pulled his Rowan wood wand out of his trunk. He paused only momentarily to admire the light wood before flicking his wand at the cards.

"Solverarto!" James said, tapping the cards smartly. They slid apart in his hands as the Kelpie hair within worked its magic. He quickly stowed his wand back inside of its first, soft, plushy casing. Then he put it inside of the rigid case. Then he strapped the cotton contraption around it to cushion it further. Then he set it inside of the oak cylinder and carefully closed it. Okay so maybe he was a _little_ paranoid of his wand getting hurt.

James slammed his trunk shut with much less care and turned to face Scorpius once more. He was surprised to see that Scorpius was motioning for James's trunk. Glancing down, James immediately saw why. Scorpius's own trunk was lying in-between James and himself lengthwise. He immediately grasped the handle of his own trunk and laid it on top.

"Nice table idea!" James said with satisfaction at the makeshift leather table.

"Yeah!" Scorpius said. "Now we can play."

Scorpius drew one card from his deck, glanced at it, and firmly folded his hands around it. "Now you go." He told James. James drew a card from his own face-down deck. He glanced down at it. A coin. He motioned for Scorpius to go. Scorpius drew another card and immediately placed it on the battlefield. From upside down, James was able to read 'House Elf: 1 coin: 2 damage: 2 health'.

James immediately drew another card and was about to put it down on his own battlefield when he realized it was another coin. After that, he got five more coins and Scorpius had gotten another House Elf on the battlefield before he finally got a creature.

"Centaur: 2 coins: 5 damage: 5 health" James read triumphantly as he placed it on the battlefield. Immediately, all creatures folded up from their two-dimensional picture and became three-dimensional models. They charged at each other and James was able to see both the house elves' and his centaur's health decrease on the cards that they had come out of before both elves disappeared and their cards automatically moved to the graveyard. James's centaur came limping back to his own card and folded forwards into it. His centaur had one health left.

The game continued on, James in the lead sometimes, Scorpius in the lead sometimes. Finally, James placed his final card in his graveyard and it flashed back into a solid block. On the other side of the table, Scorpy's formidable army retreated and formed itself back into its own solid block.

James handed back his deck with a grin. "Are we gonna play again?" He asked. Scorpius glanced outside.

"Nah." He said. "Imma just brew in your defeat."

James punched Scorpius in the arm and the platinum-haired boy laughed while he swung James's trunk back onto his seat. He pulled up his own from the floor and stowed the exploding snap card decks securely inside just as a voice started carrying down the hallway.

"An-ything from the trolley? An-ything from the trolley?" An old woman's voice came from down the hallway. "You want anything dears?" She asked as she stopped by the door. James nodded ravenously, as did Scorpius, and they both dug out at approximately three galleons worth in Sickles and Knuts from their trunks. They bought at least two of everything from cauldron cakes to every flavor beans. As soon as the old woman left, they swung their trunks back into a table and piled their goods on top.

Soon they were just goofing off. James would throw an every flavor bean at Scorpy and he would catch it in his mouth. Then he would release a terrified chocolate frog from it's package and they would both re-capture it.

Before they knew it, the cakes and candies were half gone and two prefects had already stopped by to remind them to change into their robes. As the second prefect left, Scorpius sighed.

"Might as well." He told James, looking at the rapidly darkening sky. They pulled their robes on over their clothes and split up the remaining sweets, packaging the carefully in the front section of their trunks.

As they pulled up outside of Hogwarts, they rushed to get out of the train and into the cool night air. James spun giddily in the fresh air, looking up at the sky.

"FIRS' YEARS! OVER 'ERE!" James heard Hagrid yell. He knew Hagrid quite well as the half-giant spent nearly every Christmas with the Potter and Weasley families.

"Hey, Scorpy!" he yelled, catching the attention of the blond boy. Scorpius rushed over and James introduced him to Hagrid.

"Nice to meet yeh!" Hagrid said gruffly, shaking the boy's hand before ushering them onto the last boat. They slid their trunks into the luggage carriages and hopped on board. On Hagrid's command, the boats started to move, gliding smoothly across the lake.

A terrified shriek sounded from one of the boats beside James and Scorpius as a small boy fell out of his boat. His boat mates looked horrified and tried to stable the nearly capsizing boat as a large, ghostly white tentacle burst out of the water, splattering them all with drops of the black lake. Beside him, James could see Scorpius's mouth hanging open in shock. The tentacle grabbed the poor kid around the middle and deposited him inside of Scorpius and James's boat.

"You alright?" Hagrid asked gruffly, toweling the kid off with his coat. "Don' worry. It happened before."

The kid, who seemed unshaken despite his cold encounter, grinned widely. "With Dennis Creevey?" He asked. Hagrid stopped toweling.

"How'd you know?" He asked suspiciously. The kid's face looked like it was about to split he was smiling so wide.

"That's my Dad!" He said happily. Hagrid snorted.

"Mus' be a family tradition!" He said and he pulled the kid's original boat closer and deposited the dripping kid inside of it. "Careful to keep tha' around you." Hagrid said, putting his coat over the sopping wet kid.

"Thanks!" he grinned before settling down in the boat to watch the castle come into view.

Everyone immediately forgot the Creevy kid as the castle loomed in front of them. Ooh's and Aah's erupted around James and Scorpius as the magnificent stone castle appeared.

"Wicked!" James murmured.

"Yeah!" Breathed Scorpius beside him. The boats bumped up against the stony shore and they got out, one way or another. In James's case, it was another as his booted foot slipped and dunked itself in the ice cold water. James swore and Scorpy laughed loudly as James stumbled ashore. Shaking his water off his boot and onto Scorpius, James raced to catch up with the other at the castle door. Scorpius ran behind him and bopped him on the head playfully as he passed. The door opened slowly. Everyone craned their heads desperately to see what was inside. Their eyes finally saw a black woman standing tall in the center of the hallway.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Scorpy whispered in James's ear, earning a playful elbow from James.

"I am deputy headmistress, Professor Sinistra." The woman said. "If you will please follow me into the great hall."

The throng of first years, including the dripping Creevy boy, followed her. They soon met another set of tall doorways and entered the hall. It was easy to see the four tables from their point of view as they walked through the center of the room. James glanced wistfully at the far left (Gryffindor) table wistfully and noticed Scorpius doing the same. _Please be Gryffindor!_ He thought.

The old frayed sorting hat sat on the wooden stool. "Now as I call your name," Professor Sinistra began. "I would like you to come up here and sit on the stool. I will place the hat on your head so as to sort you."

The names started to drone on soon after "Creevy, Oliver!" the boy who had fallen into the lake.

"It's hard to believe that thing has lasted for so long," James whispered into Scorpius's ear.

"Potter, James!" Sinistra called from up front.

"Good luck!" Scorpius whispered to him as James started walking.

By the time that James reached the hat, his knees felt like jelly from the whispers surrounding him. 'Potter? Did she say Potter?' Seemed to be coming from nearly every mouth.He sat uncomfortably on the wooden stool and felt the hat being placed onto his head.

 _Hmmm… I remember your father. I STILL think he would've done well in Slytherin._ A voice in James's head said.

 _He was an amazing Gryffindor though. I will be an amazing Gryffindor._ James tried to convince it.

 _Calm down kid, I don't need convincing._ The hat said patronizingly. "GRYFFINDOR!" It shouted.

James sighed in relief and, handing his hat to Sinistra, headed towards the table. He was received warmly with claps on the back. He hoped Scorpius would be received the same way. His anxiety grew more and more as Sinistra rattled off more names, among which were Lily's and Hugo's (who were sorted into Gryfffindor), until finally he heard: "Malfoy, Scorpius!"

He watched his friend walk up to the stool. He looked as nervous as James felt.

Even from far off, James was able to decipher Scorpius's lips moving in a silent plea: _Please Gryffindor, Please Gryffindor…_

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat finally shouted.

As Scorpius stumbled over to James, the clapping was a little sparser. Among a few, the name "Malfoy" was notorious. James, though, clapped loudly for his friend and scooted over to make room for him.

"She looks kinda scary." Scorpius murmured in James's ear while pointing to Headmistress McGonagall, who was surveying the scene analytically.

"Don't worry." James comforted him. "She's actually really cool. We've had her over at the Potter Estate multiple times and she can be REALLY fun. Same as all the other teachers. Especially Professor Sinistra. She's the head of Gryffindor you know. She started teaching Transfiguration recently."

The talking quickly stopped as Headmistress McGonagall tapped her glass with her fork a few times and stood up. "I would like to start off this year with a warm welcome to all new first years." She began. "As probably most of you know, approximately eighteen years ago, Hogwarts had a war." McGonagall paused a moment as the muggle borns were filled in by kids from wizarding families. "Most likely, quite a few of you have family or family friends you lost in that war." Around the hall, James was able to see some heads bowed. "Here at the school, we want to help protect and educate you against that." McGonagall continued. "Granted, we will probably not have such a big threat again in the future anytime soon," A few sighs of relief were heard. "But we still wish you to continue in your studies and become the best Witch or Wizard you can. Now, I never did have a way with words, so, in memory of Albus Dumbledore: Nitwit, Oddment, Blubber, and Tweak."

Headmistress McGonagall sat down with a smile at the thunderous applause and the feast appeared on the table. Both James and Scorpius gasped and piled everything they could onto their plate. Sitting directly across from the duo, Oliver Creevy, who had been sorted into Gryffindor, seemed to have taken a liking to mashed potatoes and was piling large lumps onto his plate. Looking to his left, James noticed that Scorpius was the same and laughed.

"Hey, Scorpy! Oliver! You guys should be potato buddies!" He told them. They both laughed and Oliver dropped a large scoop into James's plate.

"Join the club!" He joked. James shrugged and shoveled a spoonful into his mouth. His eyes widened. The fluffy mashed potatoes had just a hint of green onion and had molten butter soaked into it. He chewed with his eyes closed.

"Bloody hell!" James exclaimed, reaching across the oaken surface to grab the gravy boat. Pouring the gravy over the potatoes, he swallowed another bite. Beside him, Scorpius laughed at James's blissful expression.

"Welcome to the tater club!" he said, clapping James on the back. James glanced up at him, his mouth full of potatoes, and nodded vigorously.

The rest of the dinner consisted of potato-eating contests.

Looking around, James noticed everyone was finished. "Quick!" He told Oliver and Scorpius. They both shoveled a final mouthful of potatoes into their mouth before everything from dinner, including what was on their plates, disappeared. In its place, dessert showed up. Everything from treacle tart to chocolate cake appeared in front of them. Scorpius's, Oliver's, and James's eyes lit up.


End file.
